Don Lemon: Would Be ‘Silly’ to Charge Brown’s Stepfather for Inciting Riot

What would happen if police in Ferguson, Missouri decided to charge Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, for inciting the riots in that city following the grand jury decision last week? According to CNN’s Don Lemon, a move like that would only further “outrage” the community that believes Officer Darren Wilson should have been indicted for murder.

Moments after he had learned of the grand jury decision, Head could be seen on camera shouting to a crowd of protesters, “Burn this bitch down!”

During an appearance on Fox News Monday night, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said his department was pursuing an investigation into whether those comments helped spark the riots that followed that night. St. Louis County police Sgt. Brian Schellman later told NBC News that Head’s comments were not the focus of the investigation but rather one piece of a larger inquiry into what happened on the night of November 24.

“Talk about throwing gasoline on a fire,” Lemon told Wolf Blitzer during a discussion about the investigation Tuesday. “Imagine the irony that the man who shot your son and killed your son is not charged and then your husband or the stepfather is charged?”

“People would be outraged,” he continued. “I’m not sure what would happen in that community. Anything can happen but — I think they would be really, really silly, quite honestly, to charge this man considering what is going on there.”

“I don’t know how I would feel a loved one had died, so I’ll give him that,” Lemon said later. “But his words were reprehensible, there’s no excuse for that.”

Watch video below, via CNN:

And watch the original video of Head’s remarks, captured by The New York Times:

[Photo via screengrab]

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